SoWhere Do We Go From Here?
by Catalina H
Summary: What happens when a shocking discovery has an unexpected twist? Don centric. Told from 3 POV. Disclaimer: i don't own numb3rs. -SEQUEL part 1 and 2 COMPLETE- 3RD IN SERIES -IN PROGRESS-
1. Chapter 1

So...Where Do We Go From Here?

Chapter 1

It was just another day until that phone call. That phone call, even though he was unaware of it at the time, would change his life forever.

After listening to the caller, "OK, I'll be there in 20 minutes," he answered.

"What have we got?," he asked as he arrived at the scene.

"Looks like another burglary...," she started as she filled him in on the events that had transpired at the same house earlier that evening.

"Was anyone else home?," he asked after she told him that one victim had already been rushed to the hospital with two gunshot wounds.

"Her nephew, 17, came home from school as they were leaving. Fortunately, he was only knocked unconscious. The paramedics are checking him out now," she said, pointing over to the ambulance, where a police car was blocking any view of the people over by it. "Don, there is something you should know first," she continued as he had started walking over to talk to the boy.

_A little late for that don't ya think_, he thought as the boy suddenly came into view before he'd had time to ask her what he should know first. At first sight he knew what she was going to say, it was obvious to anyone who wasn't blind. The kid looked just like him in his teenage years. "What'd you say his name was?," he asked as he stopped mid-step, continuing to stare at the 17 year old boy.

"Alex. Alejandro Trellus. Son of -"

"Sarah Trellus," he finished her sentence for her. He hadn't seen or heard from Sarah since college. They had gone out a few times in high school, but when they happened to be attending the same college they really hit it off. Then she broke it off out of nowhere and disappeared. Apparently she had stayed close. "Where is she?"

"Neighbors say that he's been living with his aunt for about a year, apparently his mother died in a car crash last fall. You want me to go find a birth certificate?"

"Yeah."

He was still in a state of shock as he walked over to talk to Alex. _I can't believe I have a son_, he thought to himself as he reached the boy who looked almost exactly like him. Right then the boy looked up and you could see the shock on his face as well.

"Whoa...," Alex muttered. _Is this for real?_, he thought to himself, desperately wishing he wasn't meeting his father for the first time while he was alone, no one he knew to encourage him, but he looked just like the guy so apparently it really was happening.

"Yeah," Don stated back, seeing that the kid was just as surprised as he was. And, after what seemed like the longest silence in the world, he finally said,"I'm Don Eppes with the FBI. It's Alejandro, right?"

"Yeah," he responded, knowing that this stranger was just as confused and scared as he was, "but everyone just calls me Alex. How's my aunt?" He was trying to avoid the inevitable conversation, if only for a little while.

"She's already at the hospital, they had to do immediate surgery so we won't know how she's doing until they finish." Thankfully Megan had filled him in on that detail before he had come over here.

At that minute, the paramedics finished up and said they were going to take Alex to the ER to get some tests, just to make sure there was no serious damage.

In the hospital, Alex sat there wondering what he should be thinking and feeling, desperately wishing he wasn't alone. Then suddenly, as if his wish was being granted, he hears a familiar voice outside in the hall arguing, of course, with the nurse to reveal which room he was in.

"Ande!," he called out, ignoring the shooting pain to his head as he yelled.

Then he saw her. They'd called each other their "other half" since they were kids and until this moment Alex had never truly understood why. She ran over and gave him one of the biggest hugs she'd ever given him, and suddenly he felt like everything was twenty times better.

"Alejandro Jerald Trellas!," she screamed at him, "If you didn't have a concussion right now I'd punch you in the face so hard it'd give you one!"

He was so happy to see her he didn't even care she was threatening him, even if she'd probably follow through after he got better. "I missed you too, sis," He stated with such emotion and truth, even a hint of sarcasm, that she didn't say another word. She only locked eyes with him, as they had done many times before, speaking directly to him and not speaking at all, and telling him she'd missed him too.

Ande had only been gone a little over a week, but in her brother's eyes she could see that she had made a mistake yesterday in going out with her friends all night instead of coming home and seeing her brother, even if it meant she would have gotten chewed out by aunt Bella. She'd never been the emotional type, but seeing the fear and panic in her brother had her worried.

"What's wrong?," she asked him impatiently.

"Uh...well...it's kinda complicated. Uh...we-"

"Look, just spit it out!," she was really starting to worry now.

"I think it'd probably be best if you saw for yourself," he stated, breaking eye contact with his sister.

She'd never known her brother to be this nervous about telling her something she needed to know. "Where do I look?," she asked, resigning in her effort to retrieve the information from her brother.

Back at the office, Megan was coming up to him in the break room with a piece of paper to show him. She paused, hesitant on handing it to him, but he grabbed it to read it over. And then he saw it, his name in the space that read "father". _Oh man_, he thought as he re-read it just to be sure he wasn't imagining it.

"There's something else you should know," she said, interrupting his line of thought. "Bella Masterson, the aunt, the hospital just called..." she paused, trying to give him time to absorb everything, "she just died in surgery."

After a long pause she continued, "You think you're ready for this?" He knew she was aware of his current state of shock, but he didn't really care.

"I guess I have to be, don't I?," he answered while picking up his jacket as he stood to leave, suddenly very confident in what he had to do.

On his way out he noticed that someone was arguing with a surprisingly shock-stricken David and Colby. He couldn't tell what was so shocking, until he got closer and saw who it was they were arguing with. Now he understood the shock.

"What's wrong with you two?! You look like you're seeing a ghost or something," Ande said provokingly. She knew she was probably just taking out her anger over her aunt and brother on them, but she didn't really care. She'd always been the one with the temper, so she'd gotten used to pissing people off, even getting a kick out of it most of the time. But the staring she didn't like one bit, "OK, seriously what is so freaking fascinating? Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare at people?"

"Sorry, it's just-," Colby started.

"Just what? Just so fun, cool, what?," she retorted.

"Uncanny," David finished Colby's earlier sentence.

"What? That me and my brother look alike?," she was starting to get pissed when the reason was that she looked like her brother. The word "duh" came immediately to mind. She'd had enough so she started to leave, "It's not that unusual for brothers and sisters to look alike ya know! Espe-," she stopped mid-sentence when she turned only to find what seemed like merely an older-looking Alex.

_Twins_, Don thought as he caught the end of the conversation and then stared into a face almost identical to the one he'd learned to be his son's.


	2. Chapter 2

So...Where Do We Go From Here?

Chapter 2

_Oh shit!_, Ande thought as she stared into, what she was sure to be, her father's face for the first time. _I'm gonna kick that manipulating little twit's ass!_, she thought, very pissed off at her brother. She now knew why Alex had said she needed to see for herself. She now understood the look of fear and panic in her brother's eyes, but that still didn't mean he couldn't have at least warned her. She herself had never been that interested, in truth she thought she just never cared, about who her and Alex's father was, but she also knew that Alex had always been curious. Ande and Alex were the pure picture of identical, well other than being the opposite sex, twins, at least on the outside. But that was as close as it got. They had a few similar personality traits, but otherwise they were polar opposites. Their mother had always said that Alex was just like her, and that Ande had always been her father's daughter, even if they'd never met before. Ande remembered her mother telling them at a young age that if they ever wanted to know about their father, all they had to do was ask. However, they'd decided since it involved both of them very personally that if they weren't in total sync about it, they wouldn't ask. Ande had never wanted to know, but now here he was, standing right in front of her.

_I have a daughter too!_, Don thought as he stared into her face. He had known twins ran in Sarah's family, but he hadn't thought about it when he met Alex. Yet, here she was, looking almost identical to her brother, but with a seemingly more defiant attitude. He'd noticed that after David and Colby had gotten over the initial shock, they had gone over to the break room to join Megan, obviously to give some slight privacy. He still hadn't gotten over the initial shock of finding out he had a son, let alone the shock of seeing the boy's twin sister here in his office.

"I have to go," Ande said, quickly recovering herself from shock. She'd never liked being caught off guard, but she especially hated it when she was too shocked to speak. In her mind, she'd already taken too long to recover from it. Now she was almost jogging to reach the elevator before he recovered from his own shock.

Reacting almost automatically, as if on pure instinct, "Wait!," Don said, quickly sliding into the elevator after her, barely managing to make it before the doors closed.

"What do you want?," she spat out, using her anger, initially intended for her brother, to keep her as calm as she could ever hope in this particular situation.

"OK, look, I just wanna talk," he said, trying to be as rational as possible, even though he really thought he might be hallucinating. "What's your name?"

"Ande."

"And you're...-"

"Alex's twin sister? Yeah," she stated bluntly.

"Right. H-Ho-How...," he was struggling to find words now.

"Did this happen? Well, do you want the health lesson or the reason Alex didn't tell you himself? Or maybe even the reason you didn't see anything about it on his birth certificate?," she'd never been one with patience, even less so now. She wanted out of the elevator faster than it was allowing.

"OK, I know the health lesson one, so how 'bout the other two," he retorted sarcastically. He knew could tell she wanted out as fast as possible, but he was gonna try to at least figure out a couple things before she could bolt off the elevator.

"Alex didn't tell you because he's not exactly the most outgoing or sharing person out there," she was trying to be as truthful as possible, but not knowing the answer herself made it a little difficult. "And of course the birth certificate wouldn't say anything!," she stated like it was obvious, but continued. "We are two different people. They don't put stuff like 'has a twin' on there ya know."

Before Don could say anything the elevator doors had opened right on cue, and, before he could tell which way she went, she was gone.

Back at the hospital, Alex was very curious as to what happened with Ande and Don. He knew how she could be, and he knew how shocked their father had seemed when he'd seen him. Alex was actually starting to feel guilty for not warning him about Ande, or at least telling Don that he had a twin sister. Alex also knew Ande well enough to know she was going to be pretty pissed at him for not telling her why he'd sent her to the FBI office, especially when it was for this reason.

_How does she do that?_, he thought to himself as Ande walked into his room right at the moment he had finished thinking about what had happened between Ande and Don. "How'd it go?," he asked her, smiling to try and offset her scowl that was pointed directly at him.

"You manipulative little son of a bitch!," she started yelling at him.

"Hey, hey, hey...," he interrupted her rant to explain. "Look I didn't know either until I saw him at the house. I wasn't manipulating you so you'd finally give in, I know that's a pathetic waste of time because you hardly listen to anybody!," now Alex was starting to yell back, giving himself a headache in the process.

Ande could tell this wasn't the time for this conversation. "Fine," she stated boldly, and with that, and a stern look from each other, they dropped the subject.

Getting out of the elevator to follow Ande, Don had run into Charlie. As quickly as he could, without leaving out crucial details, he'd explained everything that had happened so far. Of course, Charlie insisted on going to the hospital as well, but Don had remembered he'd never gotten the chance to grab his keys so they'd agreed to meet there.

When he reached the hospital he noticed Charlie had brought someone with him. "Uh-oh," Don thought when he noticed that their dad was who Charlie had brought.

"Hey Donnie! What's going on? What's this surprise Charlie keeps talking about?," his father asked when he'd reached them.

"Well...uh...it's probably better if you just see for yourself," he answered, hoping maybe his father would have mercy on him if there were witnesses. He knew this wasn't going to go over very well, and he scowled at his brother as they walked in to the room where Alex was staying.

When they entered the room, Alex was the only one there, but Don knew Ande was around somewhere. Don introduced his father and brother to his son after seeing the somewhat apprehensive stare when all three of them had entered.

After seeing Alex was calmer now, he continued the introductions, "Dad, Charlie, this is Alex." After seeing the continued shock on Alan's face Alex had tried to smile in order to be sort of a buffer, which Don was grateful for, but to no avail.

"Hi Alex," his father had said before turning and giving him a still shocked, yet stern face and saying, "Donnie, can I talk to you out in the hall a minute?"

Alex gave him a reassuring smile which he returned with a grateful one, and then followed his father into the hallway. _Oh boy..._ Don thought, watching his father search for the words to start with.

After a long pause, "Look Donnie, I know your mother and I left you to fend for yourself a lot and that we probably should've talked with you more," Don knew where this was going, "But to get a girl pregnant when you just started college? I thought we'd at least taught you better than that." And that line of conversation continued until Ande pushed them aside so she could get in the room. "Who's she?," his father asked, he hadn't really gotten a good look at her.

"Alex's twin sister," Don answered instantly. His father's eyes went wide open. "Yeah, she's my daughter," he said, answering the doubt in his father's eyes. Surprisingly that was the end of that conversation, he'd have to thank Ande for that later.

"This is all I could find," Ande was explaining when they reentered the room, throwing several bags of chips and crackers on the bed. "The coffee machine was broke, but I think I can get the one upstairs to work," she continued as she and Alex continued to stare at each other.

Ande had always been able to make lame small talk to avoid people's questioning about why she and Alex always stared at each other. It just seemed easier than trying to explain that it was their way of communicating, people just never seemed to understand their "bond". Even if it was annoying to have your twin know what you were thinking, it was still nice to have a bond that strong with someone.

Alex knew that he couldn't contribute much to the conversation, he'd never been that great at talking and "talking" with his sister. But since he'd already filled her in on who Charlie and Alan were, he thought he would let her mull that over while he made some lame small talk. But when he could tell Ande wanted to get out of there he grabbed her hand to get her attention.

"What? I'm just going to go get some coffee," Ande responded to her brother's plea out loud, which she knew was a mistake she'd have to deal with later.

"You're coming back, right?," Alex also responded out loud, but to purposefully get Don's attention. He loved his sister, but he also knew she had a habit of disappearing when she got uncomfortable, especially around family. She scowled at him, knowing what he was doing.

"Yeah, just coffee. Want some?," she offered, trying to sound normal, but annoyed. Meanwhile she was promising him she wasn't going anywhere as they stared each other down. He believed her after she pointed out that her bag was still on the floor by his bed, and she wouldn't take off without it. This worked. She took her leave, hurrying out of the room as fast as possible without drawing unnecessary attention. Don was still in the door, but after a quick, "Move," from Ande as she passed he moved across the room to sit by Alex. _Oh just great!_, she thought, immediately knowing her counterpart would rat her out in a heartbeat.

"What was that about?," Don asked as he sat down by Alex after Ande was out of hearing range.

"Nothing," Alex knew he was gonna tell anyway, unfortunately so did Ande, but he figured he'd make it a little harder.

"Oh yeah? Then why did you make her promise to come back?"

"What are you talking about?," Alex wasn't sure how Don had caught that. But then again, maybe the whole secrecy thing was something they'd gotten from their father, because they certainly didn't get it from their mom.

"You made her promise to come back. That's why you two kept staring at each other, right?," Don had noticed, even though apparently neither his father or brother had, judging from the looks on their faces. Maybe he was ready for this.

"How'd you know?," Alex asked sheepishly. No one had ever figured it out without their help before, not even their mother. He was surprised by how glad he was he didn't have to explain this to his father, he liked having him around.

"My secret," Don stated simply. He knew that if he told them, they'd probably figure out a way to keep him in the dark. He didn't want to miss out on anything else in their lives. This thought shocked him a little, and he let a smile come across his face.

Alex decided he'd delayed long enough, "Until today I hadn't seen her for over a week," he blurt out. He saw Don's surprise and wasn't sure whether it was from the statement itself or how willing he'd been to tell his father their secrets.

"What do you mean? Where was she?," Don asked, trying not to sound worried.

"I dunno. She didn't tell me. She and aunt Bella got into it again, and then she packed her bag, said she'd be back in a week," Don was shocked, but Alex continued."She called me yesterday to say she was back and she was OK. I asked her if she'd be home for dinner, but she said some of her friends wanted to hang out. I know that was part of it, but I think she probably just didn't want to get into another fight with aunt Bella for taking off again."

"Again?," Don asked, surprised at how little he knew about them, and shocked when he kept learning more.

"She and Bella were always arguing about something," Alex said, shrugging it off as nothing. But when he saw the concern on his father's face he knew he was supposed to be telling him all this, he wanted to have a parent again. "The taking off without telling anyone where, the parties, the fights at school."

When Alex said that last one Alan fought a snicker, but lost. Don knew it was because it had reminded his father of when he was in high school. He'd gotten into a lot of fights, usually over someone bullying Charlie. He wasn't sure how to handle it now that his daughter was the one getting into fights.

Don could tell Alex was tired, and hungry so he left him there to eat some of the snacks Ande had gotten him. He told Charlie and his dad he'd be back, and then left to go find Ande.


	3. Chapter 3

So...Where Do We Go From Here?

Chapter 3

Ande had been fighting a losing battle with the coffee machine for at least five minutes. _How can a hospital not have a working coffee machine?_, she thought as she continued alternating between pressing the button and kicking the machine. She continued her failed attempts, knowing full well her brother had probably spilled his guts already. She did not want to go back and face strangers she happened to be related to, especially with them knowing what had been happening lately, she just wasn't in the mood to be a disappointment to more people.

"Need some help?," offered a voice she already had memorized.

"Nope," she replied, fruitlessly hoping that would be the end of this conversation.

"Fine, how 'bout we just talk then?," he offered, trying to make eye contact.

"No thanks," she said, turning away so to avoid eye contact. That didn't go well.

"OK, you tell me why you took off last week and where you went. I'll listen," he said, this time grabbing her arm to stop her from running off.

He wasn't taking "no" for an answer, so she gave in. "Peru. I was in Peru visiting my cousin. You can check the airlines if you don't believe me. The why? Well, that's none of you're business," she said, letting her attitude give her an edge she hoped could end this conversation. It didn't.

"Actually it is my business."

"No, it's really not." Her attitude was starting to rise along with her voice.

"Look I'-," he started, but she cut in before he had a chance to say anything else.

"I don't give a rat's ass whether you're my father or not! You don't get to find a birth certificate and automatically jump in as a dad. It doesn't work like that. We don't know anything about you, and vice versa," she was on a roll now, but managing to keep her voice down and attitude to a minimal. "Look, just because biologically we're your kids, that doesn't mean we have to trust you! For all we know, you could be some psychopath," she accused.

"You think I'm a psychopath?," he questioned, a bit skeptical, knowing there was more to it than that. "That's why you don't trust me?"

"No, I don't really think you're a psychopath," she spat out sarcastically. "I don't trust you because I don't know you. I don't trust a lot of people, so what makes you think you're any different?"

_Ah ha! So that's what this is about. Looks like she really is my daughter after all,_ he thought, finally understanding that she's more like him than he'd thought.

"Yeah, you just don't wanna trust anyone because you're afraid that they'll find out something the can use against you, am I right?," when he said that she stopped, looking stunned. "Yeah I know a little more about it than you might think." She half-laughed, half-sighed. "What?," he asked, confused.

"Mom was right," she stated, he was still confused. "I am you."

They both smiled.

When they got back to the room, Charlie and Alan went home, Alex gave Ande half of the bed, and Don laid back in one of the chairs by the bed. Ande chewed Alex out, he said "I told you so". And when they were all almost asleep, a nurse leaving after checking on Alex looked back, laughed, and left. They all looked at each other and smiled.

"So...Where do we go from here?," they all said in unison. They really were family after all.


	4. Author's Note

Thank you so much for all your reviews and comments! I really appreciate them!! This story was my first fanfic, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. The sequel is going to be a two-parter, sorry, and hopefully it will answer some questions this one gave you. I view this story as sort of an introduction to my next installment. But thanks again for your input! Feel free to be brutally honest, I like knowing how i can improve!

The title for the sequel will be:

Part 1 - Falling Apart...

Part 2 - Falling Apart: Secrets

(Check summary to find out if it's finished!)


End file.
